Saturday, November 5, 2016

Moulton-Milligan on τρωγω

As I discussed in previous post, τρωγω in John 6: Proof of Transubstantiation?, I discussed how Catholic apologists are incorrect when they claim that the verb τρωγω, as used in John 6:54, 56-58, there is no meaningful basis to argue that Jesus is speaking of a literal gnawing of His flesh, per Transubstantiation, as the verb has been used in metaphorical contexts (the argument is that it was never used to denote anything but literal gnawing/munching).

In another lexical source, Moulton-Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, we read the following (emphasis added):

4362  τργω [pg 644]
τργω,
     orig. of animals, “munnch,” “crunch,” “eat audibly,” then of men, “eat vegetables, fruit, etc,” as in Herod, ii. 37, and then “eat” generally. The word, outside the Fourth Gospel (654 al.), is found in the NT only in Mt 2433 (the Lukan parallel 1727 here substitutes σθω): cf. Syll 805 (= 3 1171)10 δωκεν εζωμον νστ τργειν. Other exx. are P Lond 12177 (iii/A.D.) (= I. p. 89) ψυχρ τργοντα κατακαεσθαι, and Preisigke 57305 (= P Bouriant 1160) a school-exercise of iv/v A.D. containing a saying of Diogenes who, when he saw a certain man eating (σθοντα), remarked— νξ τν μραν τργει. There seems no good reason for assuming the survival of any difference in meaning between the two verbs that supplied a present stem for φαγεν: but see Haussleiter in Archiv fiir lat. Lexicographie ix. (1896), p. 300 ff. In MGr τρ(γ)ω is the usual word for “eat.”
     In one of the Klepht ballads edited by Abbott Songs p. 22, the verb is used to denote security. The famous Andritsos, besieged in the great Monastery,11 τρωγε κ πινε, while his enemies stormed at the gate. For the compd. πιτργω cf. P Oxy IX. 118511 (c. A.D. 200) παδα τν μεικρν δε ρτον σθειν, λας πιτργειν, ψαρου μ θινγνειν, “a little boy must eat bread, nibble besides some salt, and not touch the sauce” (Ed.). For τραγματα = “the dessert” or δευτρα τρπεζα (secunda mensa, bellaria), see Cagnat IV. 10006 (ii/B.C.). 

Again, we see that Roman Catholic apologists are guilty of abusing Greek when they attempt to support their dogmas (cf. the Roman Catholic appeal to κεχαριτωμενη in Luke 1:28 to support the Immaculate Conception).




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